The writers of Encouraging.com are celebrating their fifteen year landmark by making their 365 daily devotional book, God Moments, available as a free digital download! A total of thirty-six GABC writers have faithfully captured “moments of God’s presence” in their lives to encourage your own spiritual journey. You can find God Moments on amazon.com, iTunes, and BarnesandNoble.com.

NIV is used unless otherwise noted.

Light in the Gathering Gloom: Day 1

Then a new king who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. “Look, he said to his people, “the Israelites have become too numerous for us. Come we must deal shrewdly with them…”.

Exodus 1:8-10

I am writing these words on November 4, 2016, four days before our national election. I have no idea what the outcome will be. You will read these words sometime after the same election with knowledge of some kind of result regarding the same election.

However, I will predict one of three things will have happened by the time you read this: the Democratic candidate will win, the Republican candidate will win or we will be in the midst of electoral, perhaps even judicial chaos that will continue for months and morph into a fragmented, faction-driven national government characterized by gridlock and special interests.

While I am at it, let me give you another prediction: No matter what the election results are, things will not get better or easier for Christians.

We have believed (and rightfully so) that because the core beliefs of our nation were mined from the pages of Scripture and affirmed in our founding documents that Christianity was the “given” of our political structure. However, Bible-living people of faith are increasingly seen as out-of-touch, if not dangerous, by the prevailing culture that has come to influence every facet of our society, including government.

This is reality in 2016. And, let’s be honest: Reality is often a downer. However, it is usually the most productive place to start.

When we admit where things stand, we can comprehend this good news. The Bible was written against the backdrop of times just like ours. It is a veritable instruction manual on how people of faith can live to the glory of God, despite dark cultures and dangerous times. Kings and kingdoms have come and gone; but in every era there have been believers who have carried the truth of God and the love of Christ forward.